Shel Talmy, Early Producer for the Who and Kinks and a Pioneer of the Brit Beat Sound, Dies at 87

Sheldon “Shel” Talmy, the American-born producer behind classic ‘60s songs by the Who, the Kinks, the Easybeats and even a teenaged David Bowie, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles from complications due to a stroke, a rep confirms to Variety. He was 87.

An architect of the classic Brit Beat sound, Talmy arranged and produced the Kinks’ early run of hits, including “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” as well as the Who’s “My Generation” and “I Can’t Explain,” and “Friday on My Mind” by the Easybeats. He also produced hits by Manfred Mann, Amen Corner, Chad & Jeremy and others and worked extensively with artists like the Creation and Pentangle, as well as David Bowie’s early singles.

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Born and raised in Chicago, Talmy arrived in London on holiday in 1962 and took what was intended as a temporary summer job with Decca Records, yet ended up resident in the U.K. for the next two decades.

Talmy’s work with the Kinks and the Who in particular introduced a muscle and heft to contemporary rock music that was unprecedented for the time — the Kinks’ Dave Davies used an amplifier with holes poked in its speaker on “You Really Got Me,” giving the guitar its gloriously distorted sound — and which has reverberated across musical generations via genres such as garage rock, punk and heavy metal.

Born in 1937, as a child Talmy appeared successfully on the nationally-syndicated television series “Quiz Kids.” Moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s after graduating high school, he worked briefly in the film and television industries before apprenticing as a recording engineer at Conway Recorders.

The experience of working with top Hollywood arrangers and session players, along with his own natural aptitude for sound design, gave him good standing when he decided to seek a holiday job while visiting the U.K. in the summer of 1962. He bluffed his way into a position at Decca Records by claiming to have produced acts like the Beach Boys, yet his work for the company soon yielded results with chart hits from local artists such as the Bachelors. By early 1964 the London-based Talmy decided to strike out on his own, making him not only one of the earliest fully independent producers in Great Britain, but also one of the very few that had sound engineering capabilities.

The Kinks were among his first signings in early 1964. Talmy would go on to produce the band’s entire output up to the summer of 1967 including “You Really Got Me,” “Tired of Waiting,” “Sunny Afternoon” and “Waterloo Sunset.” Less than a year later he also discovered the Who, supervising their crucial early recordings, including their debut “I Can’t Explain” and signature opus “My Generation.”

Widely sought out for his production skills, Talmy subsequently enjoyed major hit records around the world with acts such Chad & Jeremy (“Summer Song”), Manfred Mann (“Just Like a Woman”) and Amen Corner (“If Paradise Is Half as Nice”) through the end of the decade. He also worked with such influential acts as the Creation, Pentangle, Roy Harper and Lee Hazlewood, along with dozens of R&B, rock and pop artists.

He also signed David Bowie — then working under his real name, David Jones — to his first significant song publishing contract, produced pioneer all-woman band Goldie & the Gingerbreads, and regularly employed the likes of future Eagles/Bob Dylan producer Glyn Johns as engineer and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as session musician. In the mid-1960s he also started his own short-lived label, Planet Records, in partnership with promoter Arthur Howes.

Diagnosed at an early age with the genetic eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP), Talmy suffered from poor vision throughout his life. Although he expanded his business interests into other areas such as film, book publishing and computers in the 1970s and 1980s, Talmy kept busy as a record producer, working with such artists as the Small Faces, Ralph McTell and the Damned. He returned to the United States in 1979 and remained active in the industry in production and A&R until his death.

He is survived by his wife Jan Talmy, brother Leonard Talmy, daughter Jonna Sargeant and granddaughter Shay Berg.